Ubuntu Linux arrives and goes beyond the server side

With the advent of the Ubuntu "feisty fawn" 7.04 release, components of the Linux operating system will be adopted by more server environments.

Canonical, a co-sponsor of Ubuntu, promises that the operating system's existing server capabilities will become better in 2007.

Ubuntu always has a server component, but the real bright spot is on the desktop. On the distrowatch.com Web site, a popular web site for tracking large Linux releases, the user's score has been a cumulative one, finally making Ubuntu the first to be honored.

Starting with version 6.06, Ubuntu developers, such as Benjamin Mako Hill, began to recommend Ubuntu as a server component to IT managers looking for Windows alternatives. Mako-—— his favorite nom de guerre--wrote "Official Ubuntu book" at the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge in 2006. Ubuntu developers have run this operating system on their servers since the Warty Warthog release in October 2004.

"The success of desktop products really attracts people from the good work on the server side." "Mako said.

Ubuntu and support for virtualization, kernel based virtual machines

In addition, because Ubuntu is on the server, the 7.04 version of the server will add support for the hardware tools that can speed up the use of virtual machines. It also includes virtualization support for kernel based virtual machines (KVM). For example, on a x86 system with INTEL-VT or amd-v extensions, a kernel based virtual machine can allow multiple virtual machines to run unmodified Linux instances. VMI support, which can now provide optimized performance for the secondary virtualization Linux operating system under VMware, has been added to the Linux main kernel and is also included in Ubuntu.

Jean-yves Quentel, a venture capitalist and blogger in France, understands why the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 will support kernel based virtual machines (Red Hat has publicly recognized kernel based virtual machines, in addition to Xen). But he doesn't know what Ubuntu thinks about the technology.

"Do they really want to make it easier for Windows servers to migrate to Ubuntu by making Windows programs that are indispensable to running? Do they really want to follow the corporate version/server market in a significant way?" Quentel said.

They're just a possibility. "Ubuntu's view is that Microsoft already has too many markets," said Steve George, director of corporate support and services at Canonical Ltd, when he spoke of Ubucon in March. We will move on and make Ubuntu easy to use on the desktop, and we will devote more effort to the server in recent years. ”

Ubuntu on the server is slowly heating up

Not many people have supported George's advice since Ubucon, but Nick Selby, an analyst at the 451 Group in New York, said that up to now, Canonical has wisely decided to take things slowly.

"This is canonical's business plan--to keep corporate support and enterprise security on both desktops and servers," Selby said. "However, they know it is a long process and they are doing things in the right way through the establishment of an enterprise support and certification network." ”

Those networks may bring some results, Selby said, and in the past few years Toshiba, PalmSource, and Harvard Medical School have fully used the Ubuntu server. Spikesource Inc. is an open-source application stack vendor that contracted Ubuntu early this year to provide operating system certification for Open-source applications, such as SugarCRM. However, Selby also nail the secret, saying that neither Red Hat nor Novell was a winner in the number of accounts.

However, this may not be important anyway, because a large part of Ubuntu's server growth is beginning to be in the business environment outside the North American market, Selby said. In fact, sources from canonical told Selby this week that a "big OEM partner" was brewing in India.

Selby said he was increasingly convinced that canonical's aggressive foreign language program (both Chinese, French and Spanish) had recently been completed and that support for thin terminals had been renewed. The first people to adopt the Ubuntu thin terminals on the server may be the third World government, and they "are willing to introduce free and open source software into their institutions," he said.

"It's a relatively primitive way to build a maximum range of voice services into a product," Selby said. "Of course, the support they have given to thin terminals has become more important than expected." ”

Ubuntu and thin terminals in the enterprise

Since the release of version 6.10 last October, Ubuntu has included a pre-release Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP). The goal of this project is to provide support for thin terminals that offer lower TCO, simpler installations, and easier maintenance than traditional desktop deployments. By storing all of the data on the server, the administrator can fully eliminate the cost of updating the personal workstation to keep it secure.

According to the LTSP project's website, LTSP includes:

Automatic network configuration for servers with 2 or more network adapters using the DHCP service

Select language and session from the LTSP Manager log-allows users to select from a desktop session established on any language and server

Support devices are added locally to a thin terminal--a camera, iPod, or USB stick on a thin terminal

"(both Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth) and canonical are trying to rethink how thin terminals are viewed by system administrators and those who enable services within the enterprise environment," Selby said, adding that support for thin terminals could be first accepted by governments outside North America, Then it will gradually expand after a period of time.

Canonical is also likely to become a "rising focus" on the server as the company sees the smell of blood. In the March, Eric Raymond, a popular Open-source software advocate, dropped the Red Hat and fedora and adopted Ubuntu instead. In an open letter on his website, Raymond said the decision was "abandoned" by Red Hat, which once made it an unbeatable leader with "technical power, market share and public prestige".

Bump, set, Spikesource

To get more of a stepping stone to the enterprise, industry experts who maintain Linux software must obtain certification. For Ubuntu, the same goes for the above points from Spikesource.

At the Open Solutions Summit in New York, Spikesource announced that they had acquired the business qualification for Ubuntu Open source applications and that they would provide support for Ubuntu through their own application provider channels. Spikesource special emphasis on the provision of free/open source software solutions for business preparation, and his partners will also generate a lot of open source customer relationship management, collaboration, directory management, and reporting software for Ubuntu.

Under this agreement, Spikesource also becomes an affiliate of Ubuntu's canonical global support service, which will fully integrate Ubuntu products into the company's flagship Spikeignite platform.

In a speech, Canonical's leader Shuttleworth commented on the deal: "Our relationship with Spikesource will support companies that use Ubuntu." Whether it is spikesource, or canonical will try to push open source to a wider range of business users. A consolidated (application stack) will make it easier for customers to deploy and maintain Spikesource's advanced business Suite.